Chargers stadium week in review: Mane event

A new rendering of the potential San Diego Chargers stadium! What? It doesn't snow here? Oh. A new rendering of the potential Minnesota Vikings stadium! — Minnesota Vikings

All the stadium stories you've missed since my last roundup while you were doing your last-minute Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa shopping....

In San Diego, football fans holding out hope (dashed, badly) that they might wake up this Sunday with the possibility of a Chargers playoff game under the tree/near the menorah/by the kinara were obviously less focused on the prospect of a new stadium.

But one prominent San Diegan was talking about the issue leading up to the Lions game. That person? The man who put the Qualcomm in Qualcomm Stadium!

Yes, Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, one of San Diego’s leading businessmen and philanthropists, told the U-T’s Roger Showley what he thinks the team should do about a stadium -- and it’s not what the team wants to do.

“What do you make of the stadium/convention center choice — build a downtown stadium with convention space or build a new stadium separate from an expanded center?” Showley asked Jacobs.

“On the issue of the stadium, there’s still the question of how best to finance that,” said Jacobs, no slouch when it comes to finance. “One suggestion I’ve heard which sounded good — though any of these ideas take exploring as to whether it would be possible — is to keep the outside of the existing stadium and rebuild a lot of the interior to make shorter view lines, more space for [corporate] boxes that could be sold, etc. I always worry about taking that many people [70,000 in a new stadium] downtown on a Sunday or Monday night. It could work, I’m not saying it can’t work. But we’ve got such an ideal location, it would be helpful to have it continue there [in Mission Valley] and possibly put a sports arena there to go and see basketball there.”

That idea, of course, has been floated, but representatives of the Chargers and the Mayor’s Office say it wouldn’t pencil out in this economy and that a new stadium is a better investment.

Just this September, a group of San Diego architects made a splash (or a belly flop, judging by the team’s reaction) with a plan to preserve Qualcomm Stadium for half the cost of building a new venue in downtown San Diego.

In other news, last Sunday was the last home game of the 2011 season for the Chargers, but even after two preseason games and eight regular season tilts, rules violations persist at the city sky box.

Rest assured, though. The stadium manager said each security guard tasked with ensuring suite users write their names and affiliations legibly will get more training.

As I wrote, the Ravens game drew a crowd, but despite city rules to the contrary, it's tough to tell who was in the city suite courtesy of whom.

Fifty guests wrote their names on the sign in sheet, some illegibly and some jotting down their affiliation incorrectly. The two rule violations followed a more egregious oversight at the Raiders game last month, when only 17 of 48 guests signed in.

In Los Angeles, stadium news was also slow over the holidays. In fact, it would have been nonexistent but for that old journalism staple: The year-end list!

For mine, check back starting Tuesday as I count down the 25 most-viewed stadium stories of the year in five-story daily doses.

For its part, ESPN.com featured a list of the five defining stories of 2011 about football’s potential return to Los Angeles, a possibility that -- all together now -- could lure the Chargers north.

No. 1 on the list? The announcement of AEG’s $700 million, 30-year naming-rights deal that could balloon beyond $1 billion if the stadium gets built and attracts two teams.

The story of Mark Davis taking over the reins of the Raiders earlier this year from his deceased father, icon Al Davis, made the list at No. 5. Worth noting: There wasn’t a Chargers-centric story on the list.

Over at the Los Angeles Times opinion section, the year-end list contained only three items, but the possibility of pro football in Los Angeles ranked. From that piece:

All we need now? A team. And it appears that the only way we'll get a team is to steal another city's. And lots of money will have to change hands. And rich guys in other towns, such as San Diego, may have to be paid.

And if we actually get a team, the average fan won't be able to afford to go (to see what will probably be a bad team). And we'll probably get fewer games on TV. And traffic will be worse. And no matter what anyone says, taxpayers will probably have to cough up some money.

The story quoted San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee calling the incident a "national embarrassment."

By Friday, the mayor and representatives from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. had vowed the situation won’t repeat itself. Well, if the 49ers move to Santa Clara before too long, it probably won't....

At the same time, a group called Santa Clara Plays Fair is trying to keep the 49ers out of that city. The group wants to collect signatures for a ballot measure to reject a deal to build the $1 billion stadium. In June 2010, about 60 percent of voters approved a measure to build the stadium, but a group spokeswoman told the San Francisco Chronicle that voters “weren’t given the facts of the finances on this proposal, and what it’s really going to cost the city of Santa Clara and its citizens. The grass-roots effort said it needs $10,000 and 6,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, the 49ers' Monday Night Football game was marred by more than blackouts. In another case of venue violence, a fan’s refusal to sit down before the game when asked by another fan turned into a fight between at least four people that left one man with three missing teeth, a concussion, a black eye, stitches on the inside of his mouth and body pains that lasted into the week.

In Oakland, team officials have already devised their spin for when the power goes out at the O.co Coliseum. They’re going to call it a silver-and-blackout. That's a joke, people.

If the team is serious about pursuing a new stadium, it appears the window on a joint 49ers-Raiders stadium is closing fast in Santa Clara, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The paper said the Raiders "apparently have made no firm plans for a new stadium or new location in the months since the passing of Al Davis, and there were no plans at all before he died."

It added, "I think we all have to keep an eye on the East Coast-based group that bought a 20 percent share of the Raiders a few years ago. I’d think they’d look to L.A. (where the revenue will be bigger) if they took over the Raiders, but that’s just a guess on my part."

The new Vikings stadium! At night! — Minnesota Vikings

In Minnesota, the political discourse has shifted in recent days, from construction of a new stadium to the resignation of the Senate Majority leader, who stepped down from the post amid a sex scandal. Sen. Amy Koch was a big stadium backer so her decision to quit the role raises questions about whether her replacement will be, too. The Grand Forks Herald ran a story headlined "Upheaval from Koch scandal could slow Vikings stadium discussion," which noted that one senator mentioned for the job does not support public financial involvement.

But worry isn't pervasive. The story quoted a politician saying the Vikings will not leave after this year but instead play in the Metrodome at least one more season. After that, the team could be up for sale, and likely would move, he said. The team's lease is up Feb. 1.

a county board of elected officials agreed Tuesday to solicit preliminary approvals for architects for a $1.1 billion Minnesota Vikings stadium at a former munitions site in Arden Hills. That’s Ramsey County government jargon for consider hiring architects.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that the action was the third time the board has voted to move ahead with the project. So let’s hear it for the glacial speed of government.

(Speaking of glacial, did you see that new artist’s rendering for the Vikings stadium? Did you notice how the roof survived the snowfall? An upgrade, for sure.)

As for how to pay for a new stadium in Minnesota, the last sentence of the Star-Tribune story says it all: “No one has approved a stadium financing plan.”

Most of these teams were counting on NFL funds as part of their stadium deals already, so while the establishment of G-4 comes as a relief to them, it doesn't really do much to fill the funding holes that most of these teams (except for the 49ers) still have in their plans. And while it'd be nice if the teams used this free league cash to reduce their demands on taxpayers, it looks like most of them instead intend to use it to replace their own share of stadium costs.

In St. Louis, a Post-Dispatch columnist weighed in on the possibility of the Rams returning to Los Angeles. Possibility? Bill McClellan suggests possibility is too soft a word. He wrote “the departure of Albert Pujols was a test run” and that “the Rams will be next.”

Then McClellan added: “We handled the loss of our last football team very well. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, we said to owner Bill Bidwill when he took his football team to Phoenix. Then-Mayor Vince Schoemehl was eloquent. He talked about the importance of maintaining our dignity. He spoke of the NFL owners: 'The fact of the matter is, these are not reputable people, and I don't think it's becoming of a city to extend themselves to postures that allow them to kiss the backsides of such people.'"

Wow, right? Mayoral aides in NFL in L.A. short list cities are stealing that material as you read this.

Fear filled airtime for St. Louis sports radio, too. A CBS Sports journalist graced those airwaves to say that really only three teams are potential candidates to go Hollywood: the Rams, the Raiders and the Chargers.

“I think the league office would like a team or two in L.A., but I don’t think they’re going to go out of their way to move a team,” the CBS Sports reporter said.

In Buffalo, Bills owner Ralph Wilson didn’t talk about the more than $100 million of stadium upgrades he wants, but he and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell dropped hints (Goodell’s hint was actually dropped in October but resurrected) that they want the Bills to stay right where they are, if the definition of “right where they are” includes one regular-season game a year in Toronto.

The team’s deal to hold a game each year in Canada expires after next season and both Wilson and Goodell said they’d like to see an extension. Key to the deal will be the lowering of ticket prices at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

What? Another venue lowering tickets? Wonder if that snowballs to affect prices in San Diego?

Speaking of snowballs, Dec. 23 marked the 16th anniversary of the now-legendary snowball game in New York that culminated with the New York Giants running a full-page ad in the U-T to apologize for the ice ball barrage that knocked Chargers equipment manager Sid Brooks unconscious.

The Snowball Game

Back to Buffalo, where the Bills' Christmas Eve game was blacked out the old-fashioned way: by a failure to sell enough tickets.

The game was blacked out despite the presence of Tim Tebow (and you thought you’d make it through this column without a reference to him).

In Jacksonville, beleaguered, fake-mustache wearing fans are looking forward to the reprieve the post-season will bring them. No more watching their pitiful team. No more hearing about the potential of its move to Los Angeles.

Well, apparently, what they should have been paying attention to is the potential for a move to Las Vegas.

No, not really, but that link will take you to the funniest story of the week, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal. It begins: “Sometime this weekend, somebody's going to tell you to stop watching sports. It's going to happen.” The headline? “How to sneak in sports on Christmas.”

That story is my holiday gift to those who made it this far. Happy holidays, everyone. See you in the new year, sure to be an even busier one for stadium news.

A postscript: I'm skipping the leaguewide attendance roundup this week because only one team with stadium dreams or woes had a home game, those Buffalo Bills. I'll have the full season attendance wrapup next week.

Next: A (consolation) game against the Raiders and a story or two about personnel change.